4 Social Media Strategies Most People Forget

Social media is anything but new, and people have been turning to sites like Twitter and Facebook for years now to stay current with the latest news and trends as well as promote their business, products, and services. With the explosion of social media technologies in the last decade, you would think that just about every business would be leveraging them to their advantage, but there are still a fair few businesses today that are missing out on enormous amounts of revenue because they forgo social media marketing.

Make sure that you avoid the following social media blunders as we move forward into 2016.

1. Timing

When you decide to post content on a social media platform to promote your business, timing is everything. The amount of time that your video or post will stay at the top of people’s news feeds is incredibly ephemeral, so you need to make sure that you post your content during peak hours for maximum effectiveness. If you post your content at a time of day when most people are at work or school, the chances that they share and like your content are going to plummet.

To fix this problem, you just need to find the peak usage times for any given social media platform. And believe it or not, it changes from platform to platform. For example, peak usage times vary among sites like Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook. There are tons of data on the web that show when the best times to post are on various social media sites. Furthermore, you can delve into the Facebook Insight part of your business’s Facebook page to see data that indicates when your fans and followers have the most activity. It even has data that suggests when they usually sign into Facebook.

On the other hand, if you want better data about when to post on Twitter, Moz Tools has a feature called FollowerWonk. However, you will need to have an account to use this tool unless you opt for a short-term free trial, but it provides some extremely insightful data.

2. Taking Advantage of Multiple Platforms

Another mistake people commonly make is ignoring the majority of social media platforms. A lot of people focus only on Facebook and Twitter. While it’s true that they are certainly two of the largest and most popular social media platforms, you also need to consider others such as Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, and LinkedIn.

Google+ and LinkedIn in particular have fantastic features that allow you to share content within groups and social circles. Sharing your content in these digital spaces allows you to better connect with like-minded people. You just need to make sure that you find groups that are relevant and have a need or interest in your content. This gives you a higher degree of control over who sees your posts than other sites like Facebook. All you have to do is search for terminology that relates to your topic and request to join the group.

3. Hashtags

Hashtags have become a bit of nuisance to most people who aren’t teenagers, and we see them every day. Commercials, advertisements, and Facebook posts always seem to be littered with them, but the truth is that they are a viable method to employ to boost the efficacy of your social media endeavors.

The truth is that they are a proven way to increase the number of people who share your posts and visit your links. If you are going to promote your content in any capacity on social media networks, you would be remiss not to use appropriate hashtags to increase your effectiveness. But take that with a grain of salt, because you don’t want to overdo things.

The more hashtags you include doesn’t necessarily mean that your post will perform better. Data by Statista shows clear trends that only 1 or two hashtags will suffice, and the more you include past that start to produce diminishing effectiveness. And it isn’t all that surprising. Whenever you see a post littered with 10-20 hashtags, doesn’t it look a little spammy?

4. Paying for Campaigns

The last thing you can do that a lot of people fail to take advantage of are paid campaigns. All of the major social media networks have options that will allow you to pay for campaigns to boost visibility. The problem most business owners run into is that they don’t know how to go about sharing and promoting their content on social media, and in these cases, it is best to work with a professional who knows there way around the various platforms.

Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter among others all of paid options that can be inexpensive compared to other advertising channels.

Instead of ignoring social media completely and missing out on significant amounts of revenue that will help grow your business, you should talk to a professional to see how social media can help your business thrive.

In Summary

There is a lot more to advertising on social media platforms than clicking the ‘share’ button, and you need to make sure you avoid these four mistakes moving forward. If you’ve been struggling to make waves in social media, it is time to reach out to a professional. Social media isn’t a new trend, and if you aren’t taking advantage of these amazing marketing platforms, you have missed the boat. Make sure you course-correct in 2016!

Will Hanke owns Saint Louis’ top independent Internet Marketing firm, Red Canoe Media. In addition to helping some of St Louis’ most recognizable brands with their online marketing strategy, Will also is an Amazon bestselling author, speaker and teacher.